


The Halls of Prophecy

by consumptive_sphinx



Category: Abzû (Video Game)
Genre: Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, I did way more research for this than I wound up using, Mesopotamian and Sumerian religion, Secondary sources, primary sources
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 14:03:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12483308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/consumptive_sphinx/pseuds/consumptive_sphinx
Summary: She will restore the wisdom to the sea, and then we may return to our cities and our temples, for the coral will be healthy and the water will be clear and filled with life and the abzû shall flow through our cities and our temples and all the sea once more. May she drink of the water of life and may the Great White guide her way.The mosaics in Chapter 3.





	The Halls of Prophecy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [humanradiohead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanradiohead/gifts).



_ [Explorer’s notes from the log of Jack McDougal:] _

This building is built into the cliff face, acting as a sort of hallway between sections of open water. It is decorated in blue and gold tiles, and is structured like a temple but does not appear to have an altar, only fountains filled with glowing liquid that does not mix with the rest of the water. The floors and walkways are decorated with geometric tiled patterns, Islamic in form. There is hieroglyphic writing on the walls, along with mosaic patterns similar in style to Egyptian temple carvings depicting people, almost certainly priests and possibly with their faces ritually blackened, holding stylized plants.

The first chamber contains a fountain and three mosaics. One mosaic depicts a group of priests gathering glowing liquid which emanates from a stylized sun. Another, on the opposite wall, shows a large pink coral growing from a carved pedestal — clearly a stylized depiction of the coral chamber set just before the halls. The largest mosaic depicts a group of priests carrying glowing blue orbs above their heads. Another priest carries a red jar of glowing liquid and pours it into the ocean while small fish swim upwards from the glowing water. Similar red jars can be found in the room, all of them empty; similar glowing liquid can be found in the many fountains throughout the halls, possibly some form of oil that is denser than water. 

The next chamber contains a mosaic of a white coral; either the coral is broken or the tile has been damaged. The largest mosaic in this chamber depicts a number of priests kneeling before a large, glowing triangular figure, decorated geometrically; it appears to be some form of idol or representation of a deity. Another figure stands beside the triangle, holding a glowing orb in one hand; this figure has a triangle on its chest and is larger than all of the others; possibly it is a high priest or a mythological figure. The third mosaic in this chamber shows another large triangle attached to two smaller triangles, with the large priest-figure standing atop it. The figure is still holding a glowing orb in its hand, and the large triangle has a glowing orb at its base from which glowing liquid emanates.

In the following halls there are pillars with hieroglyphic writing, leading to a final chamber. This chamber depicts groups of priests guarded by sharks carrying pieces of yellow coral to a stylized set of glowing coral pedestals and a large temple with five marine creatures: a manta ray, some type of fish, an orca, a squid, and a large, glowing shark. There is a shark statue in the corner and kelp growing in the empty space.

The final chamber opens into a hall, which has been obstructed by rocks and which has a large hole in one wall. It is not clear what caused the rockfall or what damaged the structure; the rest of the building is undamaged except for the plants that have grown in the unused spaces. In the hall lies several broken jars and a broken, industrial-looking triangular pyramid which, upon inspection, contains highly advanced electrical circuitry, technologically far more advanced than anything else in the halls. Through the hole in the wall is a natural tunnel, leading to a triangular pyramid, similarly industrial in appearance and similarly wired but several orders of magnitude larger, which has not been broken but has clearly been deactivated.

_ [End explorer’s notes.] _

* * *

 

_ (A translation of the hieroglyphs in the second chamber of the Hall of Prophecy:) _

…and from the people of the land will come great glowing pyramids, foreign to our cities and foreign to the sea. The smallest of the pyramids shall be larger than the tallest of our number; the largest of them will be larger than New Persepolis. They will glow and spark with foreign light, and when they arrive we will welcome them as visitors to our cities and our temples, and think them beings as we are beings, though they have no faces and no hands and cannot speak or pray or swim as we do. 

We will be wrong, and we will suffer for it. The pyramids will drain the abzû from our seas; they will drain the life from the Coral Temples and leave them dead and broken on their wells; they will drain the water dead and grey, and we will flee from them or else we shall have our souls drained from our bodies and our bodies left for the crabs, and our temples shall stand empty and the gods shall stand uncared for in their statues. 

But hope shall not be lost, for from the people of the land will come a saviour. She will be neither living nor dead, with neither lungs nor gills; her body shall be of the sea and her face shall be as our faces; she will have the abzû deep within her, and all living things shall call her friend. The abzû shall light her path, and four times she will give of herself to the Source of Wisdom, and the Coral Temples shall be restored, and then the Source will give of itself to her, and she will have the strength then to break the pyramids and and release the abzû they have drained. 

She will restore the wisdom to the sea, and then we may return to our cities and our temples, for the coral will be healthy and the water will be clear and filled with life and the abzû shall flow through our cities and our temples and all the sea once more. May she drink of the water of life and may the Great White guide her way. 

_ (So it was foretold by the mosaicist-prophet Inkishush of the city of New Persepolis in the fourth year of the fourth cycle of the world; may the Great White guide his way and may he drink of the water of life.)  _


End file.
